Financing a project Think of different ways to finance a project, business or innovation. Traditionally people would go to a bank, but there are other options as well. Read the headline of the article and guess what it is about; then read the text and compare your findings. Complete the sentences with two to four words. The first one has been done for you. 1 Annie realised that children of low-income families needed to get 2 GoFundMe has proved useful when people were . 3 The writer claims that crowdfunding is helpful, but it is sad that such private platforms have to be used to solve . 4 Because of Annie’s campaign the low-income families did not have to pay . 5 In America initiatives like Annie Hanshew’s campaign provide many people in need with a new, . 1 crowdfunding: a way of financing a project by getting a large number of people to invest small amounts of money 2 In the USA, a school district consists of elementary or secondary schools in a particular area. The top member of the administration is the school district official, who either manages school issues independently or depends on the local government, such as a city or county. 18 Reading a b Go fund yourself: Crowdfunding1 is now an essential part of America’s safety net For years, Annie Hanshew has wanted things to change in her hometown of Helena, Montana, but she finally became active when the authorities announced that they expected families to pay more than $100,000 because they hadn’t paid for school meals. Hanshew, 36, felt she had to take strong action, especially after she discovered, to her horror, that school district officials2 hadn’t even discussed whether to give either free or reduced lunch to students who actually qualified for it. In a meeting of the parent-teacher association she promised the low-income families to help them. In the past, a local activist like Annie would have considered whether to complain to their school board or to the school district officials. First Annie called the school board only to find out that they would not provide any help. Then she reached for the authority many Americans have resorted to recently when confronted by an emergency or a personal tragedy: GoFundMe. Crowdfunding companies like GoFundMe make it easier for individuals to raise money. People want others to invest in their project in return for profit or they run the crowdfunding as a charity. Annie launched a GoFundMe campaign, which asked for $100,000 and earned $4,545 within days. She chose the platform for a reason: citizens in other towns had already used it to raise money for school. There are also dozens of school lunch-specific campaigns on the site, so she was not the first one to try this option. Indeed, since GoFundMe started in 2010, there have been thousands of campaigns that support teachers and parents: in 2017 people saw the company announce that its platform had raised $33.8m to pay for schoolroom basics. Such platforms are in themselves not bad, but we should not have to use them to pay for our basics, like school lunches. GoFundMe and the other crowdfunding sites that have become popular show the sad fact that in America, we now require private solutions to what are public problems. The administration should not simply watch low-income families struggle, but instead provide free school lunches from tax revenues. That’s not to say that GoFundMe and the like can’t offer moments of inspiration. Annie Hanshew, after all, is a woman who would like poor families to spend their small salaries on something other than their children’s lunch debt. Partially due to the GoFundMe campaign, the Helena public schools allowed children of low-income families to get free lunches; their debt was forgiven as well. Even though the overall system cannot be changed easily, Annie Hanshew’s good citizenship should serve as a model. Still, it is sad to see that such a new, privately funded safety net is required in America. c free or cheaper lunches. 34 Language skills Extras Explore 3 Money Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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